Friday, May 25, 2012

Unauthorized upgrades rob MAS of RM200 mil

A Syndicate Within.Malaysia Airlines has uncovered a ring involving some senior executive who have been enriching themselves by upgrading thousands of Economic Class passengers to Business Class every year, denying the financially-strapped national carrier of much-needed revenue.

Last year alone this syndicate let go over 50,000 upgrades without getting prior approval from those authorized to do so. I am not sure how they made money from "selling" these upgrades or if they were in cahoots with travel and tour agents, but by end last year the malpractice had cost the national carrier more than RM200 million in lost income!

These unauthorized upgrades are not the same as the so-called "discretionary" upgrades like the one MAS Deputy CEO Rashdan aka Danny's maid supposedly enjoyed on a flight from MH122 from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on Jan 1 2012, an accusation Danny has denied vehemently but which the whistle-blowing Member of Parliament, YB Wee Choo Keong plans to bring up again in Parliament next month [read his Questions for June Parliament].

After the share swap deal with Air Asia was rescinded, all eyes have been trained on Malaysia Airlines' new CEO Ahmad Jauhari whose task is to turn check the carrier's decade-long decline. There have been interesting developments. A couple of days ago, for example, it was reported that the management was negotiating with MAS Catering to review a one-sided 25-year contract with a company that belongs to the brother of the airline's advisor, (former PM) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

If AJ can get the caterers to agree to his terms, the airline might be able to make savings of as much as 15 per cent of the existing total F&B bills.AJ has said that his turnaround plans hinge greatly on making the best out of available resources and stopping the leakages.

I say, Happy Fishing! I hope AJ goes for the big fish and not just the little ones ....

1. retrenches its hapless and clueless top management and replace them with knowledgeable insiders or get a visionary corporate head honcho in the mould of Hasssan Merican. Additionally, it should cut ties with those bankers conning it in broad daylight.

2. review all its contracts and rescinds all that charge exorbitant rates for minimalist service.

3. embed information technology platforms in all its operations and minimise labour costs via strategic culling especially those implicated in bleeding it for personal interests.

4a. revive Firefly as either as a low cost jet operations or rebrand its as intermediate carrier plying the 6 hour routes. (MAS route rationalisation was a good move but they went crazy by removing a potential cash cow in FF from the equation at the behest of all people, a potbellied Christian cannibal and we know who that favoured don't we?)

4b. if FF is not revived as a LCC, then expand MAS Wings as a fully fledged LCC jet-equipped entity operating the domestic routes including to Singapore.

5. Terminate its collaboration with AA and charge full rates for services provided to AA.

6. explore tieups with carriers like Qantas in the long haul sector.

and of course, never ever again falling into traps set by immoral, selfish bastards, who will sell their mothers for a penny:

In the past, certain senior officers are cozy with certain big time agents who would block book on certain flights like those to Taiwan and Hong Kong. These agents are not penalised when they don't take up their quotas, yet the airline was told not to sell more seats so MAS had the situation where planes are fully booked but yet are half empty when they fly.

I once tried to change my flight in Frankfurt, and was told the flight I wanted was fully booked. So I went to the airport to standby. I got a seat, and found out that the flight wasn't that full at all. Such is the efficiency of MAS. Cathay and Singapore Airlines would never let empty seats go unsold if there's demand.

I honestly think MAS is a basket case and needs to be sold to Qantas or Cathay for RM2.

lets face it, the country has become an umno crony piggy bank. MAS is just a small scale representation of the rot. can you imagine how far the country would go without these scoundrels (rockys paymasters).

AJ reviewing the 25 year MAS F&B contract !!! I hear Pak Lah is current MAS advisor. Wow ! I'd love to see how this will pan out. If its not the fireworks that I expect but a mere fizzle - that's it ... MAS is a goner for sure.

Najib has to get behind this - by not caving in to calls to protect or bagi muka to any individual. Give AJ full powers to clean up.

Let free market assert itself. No more free lunches (free upgrades to First Class, Business Class). No more expensive meals (25 year F & B contract).

If you have the will and balls to do this, next on list should be wholesale clean up of Khazanah, Tabung Haji, EPF. Also require consistent spot checks at MITI, Petronas and other GLCs.

MACC should be bolder to investigate all these entities.

And SC has not had foresight to put into its rules and regulations regarding quality of management at listed companies.Too often you see management/ directors who come in based on connections and are too dim to read/ do simple math (which explains why they make such bad investments).

MAS is a living example of all that is wrong with this Malaysia.Malaysian business running of Sovereign Grant Funding has become incestuous. Most of them are in need of wheelchairs for the rest of their milking days and one day even PETRONAS will not have enough money to finance them. The people who are running Khazanah must be called by Parliament to account for their failing investments.

I've had the experience of being upgraded from economy to business class once during a flight to Joburg many years ago. I didn't ask for it. I was only told of the upgrade the minute I checked in for the flight. Was told that the flight was overbooked and I was selected for the upgraded. I'm still uncertain what criteria they used to upgrade me. But was not allowed to use the business class lounge at KLIA. Thought that was a nice gesture from MAS.

Wow, glad to read my brother is enervated, rejuvenated and upbeat after a gruelling two-day ceramahs in the Malay heartland.So am I bro. Came back red as lobster after a three-day Himpunan Dua Juta Belia in the BN seat of power.You should see the energy there. We had fun but we sure had purpose. The crowd far surpassed the 20,000 official figures of the Bersih 3.0 demo.We were one at all the fun-filled events. And the belias were with the PM when we sang Stand By Me with him and the BN mandarins. So much for saying BN is not the party of choice of the young.Heard that Pakatan Selangor had a gathering in Shah Alam to rival the Putra Jaya show. But a mere piddling 0f 150 were seen loitering there! LMAOF.Hmmm Sak,still believing of a Pakatan victory? Or is it dreaming?Am I talking to the next PM of Malaysia?You are ready for it. You can do it. But is your party allowing it?It wasn't a slip of the tongue when Bai Kapal Singh saluted LGE as the future PM. He was speaking in tongues.Who is going to be the CM if LGE moves up?I see Anu-war cringing in anger. And St Nick was vocal in stressing that a Malay should be the PM.It set a debate in motion with respected historian Khoo Kay Khim saying it will be a Malay PM since the race constituted 2/3s of the Malaysian population.LGE as usual is playing coy and nonchalant saying he has no such ambition.And this is a show-case of Pakatan sharing the same pillow but having different dreams.Cannot even agree on who your next PM will be when you have been trumpeting Pakatan plenty big victory.Going by the polemics, I see you as PM by default. DAP is the only party that can win the seats it is allocated for among the PAS and Keadilan.So brother, you gotta start acting statesmanly from now on. Strut yourself as someone of sterner stuff. Not the Anwar-like petty politics of accusing BN of foul means at every turn.Bg brother is watching bro. Watch your back right now.

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines' full-year profit slumped 69 percent year-on-year after a fourth-quarter loss due to high oil prices and global economic uncertainty, the leading Asian carrier said on Wednesday.

Net profit for the year to March plunged to S$336 million ($268 million) on group revenues of S$14.86 billion, the carrier reported in a statement.

In the fourth quarter, the airline said it suffered a net loss of S$38.2 million, down from a profit of S$171 million in the same period a year ago.

It was the third quarterly loss in the history of the company, which is also facing stiff competition from other premium carriers from the oil-rich Middle East as well as from the growing ranks of budget carriers.

What is more important is that Tony F is tarred and feathered and driven out of town (a la the Ku Klux Klan in the bad old days of the US deep south) and that AirAsia is whipped into servile in pursuit of some benighted agenda.

Well, they achieved one of their wishes. According to press reports, Tony F is relocating from KL to Jakarta and basing himself (with about 20 of his senior staff) in AirAsia's regional Hq in the Indonesian capital.

My sources in JKT inform that there is some quiet glee there about this and keen interest in his future strategies.

Indonesia, after all, has 240 million people and a government that has a driving ambition to make JKT a regional air hub.

Let's start with a head-to-head comparison of MAS and SIA from the time they came into being as offshoots of MSA (Malaysia-Singapore Airlines).

Here are some points to consider in running your comparison:

- size of fleet- composition of fleet- number of staff- market capitalisation- history of financial results- assets and cash balances- number of destinations served- return on capital- analysts' recommendations

See your points, guys but er.....you are talking to a madman which by the way is a very useless thing to do.

As grandma used to say whenever the mad chinaman in our neighborhood began his cursing, 'let a madman bark for at least he is helping the dogs save their voices.'And sure enough all the dogs around went to sleep as chinaman madman did their jobs for them.

That is sound advise, anons, the more you dignify it with a response, the more louder the madman will bark thus disturbing the neighborhood peace.So shhh..let it bark itself out.

And one more thing ah...his bark is bigger than his bite like his mouth is bigger than his cock..heh heh heh.

"Shares in flagship Australian airline Qantas dropped below A$1 (98.5 US cents) Friday for the first time since the carrier's float in 1995 after it was put on credit watch by Standard & Poor's.

"The embattled airline's stock plunged as low as 96.2 cents - a fall of more than nine per cent - after S&P put its BBB/A-2 investment-grade rating on credit watch negative following warnings this week of a huge profit slump."

Hmm...I wonder what MAS shares would be worth if it were subject to the ratings agencies' evaluations? Cents, probably.

After all, Qantas has a better profit track record than MAS, a more focussed management, and is headquartered in a country where bailouts aren't the norm.

It's surreal how the apologists for MAS refuse to acknowledge the realities of the airline industry.